Japan PM Naoto Kan warns of 'collapse' under debt pile

Japan is at "risk of collapse" under its huge debt mountain, the country's new prime minister has said.

Naoto Kan, in his first major speech since taking over, said Japan needed a financial restructuring to avert a Greece-style crisis.

"Our country's outstanding public debt is huge... our public finances have become the worst of any developed country," he said.

After years of borrowing, Japan's debt is twice its gross domestic product.

"It is difficult to continue our fiscal policies by heavily relying on the issuance of government bonds," said Mr Kan, Japan's former finance minister.

"Like the confusion in the eurozone triggered by Greece, there is a risk of collapse if we leave the increase of the public debt untouched and then lose the trust of the bond markets," he said.

No Greece

Despite the prime minister's hair-raising words, markets did not bat an eyelid, with the Japanese yen, the Nikkei stock market index and Japanese government bonds unmoved.

"Fiscal austerity measures are long overdue," said Chris Scicluna, deputy head of economics at Daiwa Capital Markets in London.

He forecasts that the government's budget deficit will be 8% of GDP this year, a number that Mr Kan has promised to reduce to zero by the end of the decade.

However, Mr Scicluna said the government does not face any immediate fiscal crisis, unlike some European countries, and probably will not start tackling its budget deficit for at least another year or two.

Unlike Greece or Spain, Japan is a net lender to the rest of the world, to the tune of 2.5% of its GDP last year.

Cheap borrowing

The Japanese government is effectively the only borrower in Japan, and raises all of the money it needs from the savings of its own citizens.

JAPAN IN FIGURES

Continue reading the main story

• Government debt: 200% of GDP
• Government deficit: 8% of GDP
• External surplus: 2.5-3.5% of GDP
• GDP growth: 3%
• Inflation: -1.5%
• 30-year bond yield: 2%

Source: Daiwa

Some 95% of the government's debts are held by Japanese investors, and the government can currently borrow for 30 years at a mere 2% interest rate.

But Mr Scicluna says Japan does have serious medium-term problems related to its ageing population.

As more and more Japanese citizens retire in the next few years, they are likely to start selling their government bonds to pay for their retirements.

This means that Japan will need to start borrowing from the rest of the world, and the government may have a hard time convincing foreign lenders to let it borrow at such a low interest rate.

Tax reform

Mr Kan did not detail the fiscal changes he may impose to revive Japan's economy after years to stagnation.

But in the past Mr Kan has advocated increasing Japan's sales tax, a move that would be unpopular.

He said: "It is unavoidable to launch a full reform of the tax system. If we maintain the current level of issuance of new bonds, outstanding debt will surpass 200% of GDP in a few years.

"It's been 20 years since the collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s. Because the Japanese economy had been in the doldrums, people have lost the trust they had and fear the uncertainty of the future," he said.

Who will spend?

The Japanese austerity plans may not be welcome elsewhere in the world.

Over the weekend, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called on surplus countries - like Japan, Germany and China - to do more to increase spending.

Yet Germany has announced plans to cut its budget deficit by 3% of GDP over the next four years, while China's trade surplus has grown even further, according to data for May.

With Japan also now looking to wield the fiscal axe, some may wonder who is actually going to spend money in the world economy.

BP's Dispersants Are Used Already ---- For GM Crops

COREXIT & GM CROPS

Corexit EC9527A is 30-60% 2-Butoxyethanol by weight. 2-B ( I will use the abbreviation 2-B ) is a main ingredient in many fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides ( especially Roundup ), insecticides, fuels, fungicides, cosmetics & leather treatment , and oddly enough, it is commonly used for " handling " oil spills .

The main argument for the use of COREXIT products, I have heard , is based on the studies of algae and microbial life in the Gulf . This logic is blind to the consideration of the 4 crucial things. The proliferation rate of oleophillic microbial life ( The specific bacteria to the deep-water Gulf, Deltaproteobacteria, and the powerhouse shallow water oil eater Alcanivorax borkumensis ) when faced with an overabundance of food, the specific hydrocarbons they actually eat, the depth and temperatures at which they thrive, and how 2-B can kill them all before they get a chance to eat. People presenting these arguments also don't understand how the food chain works. Microbes secrete their own surfactant molecules to break up the oil before consuming the hydrocarbons. Other microbes don't make surfactants but devour oil already broken into small enough globs—including those broken down by Alcanivorax. These microbes cannot proliferate until the Oxygen is depleted from the water. The colder temp loving microbes eat only short-chain hydrocarbons like gases, and the warmer clime-preferring ones are easily killed by 2-B. In order for these cold temp loving microbes to digest Hydrocarbon gases, these gases must first be produced. The gases they actually do eat are methane (CH₄ ) ethane (C₂H₆), propane (C₃H₈) and butane (C₄H₁₀). They gases they produce are Hydrogen Cyanide and Hydrogen Sulfide.

The breakdown products of COREXIT are CO2 and Carbon Monoxide, neither of which stay suspended in salt-water at 5k' +, nor do the indigenous bacteria in the Gulf eat them. What does stay suspended in water is 2-B.

So that argument is moot.

2-B has never been tested on any type of marine life for longer than 9 days, and the effects that are known, is that it's mutagenic , teragenic and carcinogenic. As far as the testing on humans or other mammals , there is plenty, it's all below. Of course if you don't care, then don't read it.

In the United States, the primary manufacturers of 2-B are : Eastman Chemical, Dow Chemical and Equistar. Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences LLC, a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, are in partnership to develop GM crops. Monsanto sales of GM seeds in the US cover 90% of the market.There are also projects being undertaken by Makhteshim Agan, an Israeli bio-engineering firm purchased by Cibus Global .

Here is Monsanto's sales report for the first 2 quarters of 2009, so you can see the scope of 2-B's use in the states.

2-B is the very same chemical used as an adjuvient in herbicides like Roundup. Most genetically modified crops like. Roundup-Ready Corn. as well as a majority of the cotton, oilseed and vegetable crops in the continental US. are engineered to resist Roundup. Monsanto also pushed for the passage of laws preventing farmers from saving their own seed without state regulations, thus forcing many to purchase Monsanto GM seedstock. The plants are also engineered to be sterile, forcing farmers to purchase expensive seedstock for every growing season. The official name for these seeds is the " Terminator ' series.

Throughout 2004 and 2005, Monsanto filed lawsuits against many farmers in Canada and the U.S. on the grounds of patent infringement, specifically the farmers' sale of seed containing Monsanto's patented genes. In some cases, farmers claimed the seed was unknowingly sown by wind carrying the seeds from neighboring crops, a claim rejected in Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser. These instances began in the mid to late 1990s, with one of the most significant cases being decided in Monsanto's favor by the Canadian Supreme Court. By a 5-4 vote in late May 2004, that court ruled that "by cultivating a plant containing the patented gene and composed of the patented cells without license, the appellants (canola farmer Percy Schmeiser) deprived the respondents of the full enjoyment of the patent." With this ruling, the Canadian courts followed the U.S. Supreme Court in its decision on patent issues involving plants and genes.

Please read the rest at The OtheЯ News.

Be seeing you.

Thai government tells US it's in charge

WASHINGTON — A special envoy from Thailand has sought US support in the country's political crisis, discouraging the kingdom's longtime ally from trying to mediate in the wake of bloody street protests.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dispatched Kiat Sittheeamorn to Washington to make the case that so-called Red Shirt protesters who occupied central Bangkok for weeks included armed and Marxist elements.

Kiat, who met with members of Congress and President Barack Obama's administration on Friday, said that the Thai government welcomed US "suggestions" but was pursuing its own reconciliation plan.

"We ourselves also see some difficulties in negotiating and discussing with the Red Shirts," Kiat told AFP. "If the US extends a helping hand, I don't know if it will have different results."

"There is also the risk that it might complicate the issue even further," said Kiat, who is Thailand's trade negotiator.

Kiat recalled Thailand's reaction to the September 11, 2001 attacks when "our friends were in trouble."

Did "we have concern that from now on we should advise our people not to come to the United States? Are we concerned that the United States government cannot handle the situation? Certainly not," he said.

"We always respect the decisions of any government; it's their right. But obviously it would be nice to see that... when your friends are in difficulties, we get all the support you can," he said.

The army broke up the Reds' rally on May 19 after weeks of protracted negotiations broke down. The clashes left 89 people dead.

During the crisis, Thailand summoned the US ambassador to protest after Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia, met Red Shirts on a brief visit to Bangkok.

Kiat said that while "the intention of Mr. Campbell is good," he believes that the State Department has since gained a "better understanding" of the situation.

Scot Marciel, Campbell's deputy in charge of Southeast Asia, told Congress that the United States has engaged all sides in Thailand and supported Abhisit's plan for reconciliation.

"The United States can be a source of support as the Thai work to resolve the issues that still divide them, but it is the Thai people themselves who must make the difficult choices on how to proceed," Marciel said.

The reconciliation plan includes early elections, although Kiat said they were unlikely to be held this year.

Marciel admitted that in 25 years working on Southeast Asia, "I'm not sure I've encountered a situation as complex as the one in Thailand right now in terms of trying to understand the politics."

The Red Shirts include rural Thais who say they are disenfranchised by the political system. Some 36 buildings were torched in the mayhem last month, including the stock exchange.

Kiat said that some Red Shirts had "legitimate grievances," but they did not constitute a "straight-forward demonstration" as they included armed groups and "Marxist-Leninist ideologists."

Senator Jim Webb, who heads the Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia, recently visited Thailand and agreed that aspects of the Red Shirts were "classic Marxist."

"You had the incitement of people based on poor versus the rich in a country that has made enormous advances over the last 30 years," Webb said.

Thailand is one of the oldest allies of the United States and assisted during the Vietnam and Iraq wars.

Catharin Dalpino, director of the Thai studies program at Georgetown University, said the United States had a stake in Thailand's stability but needed to exercise restraint.

Unlike many other countries since the Cold War, Thailand transitioned to democracy without foreign involvement, she said.

"The current political situation is still highly charged and extremely complex and high-profile attempts by an external actor to change the dynamic are likely to be counter-productive. Moreover, it runs counter to Thai sensitivities," she said.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.

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Schumer’s Sippenhaftung and the Children of Gaza

"Gaza" is an abstraction to most Israelis, including [partisans of Israel like] Sen. Charles Schumer of New York. A majority of the 1.5 million Gazans is not even from Gaza, but rather is from what is now Israel.

Americans do not know, and perhaps do not care, that 68% of Gazans are refugees living in 8 refugee camps, who were ethnically cleansed and violently expelled from their homes in 1947-48, in what is now Israel. And no, they were not combatants, just civilians caught up in a civil war of sorts. They lost massive amounts of property and their homes, which would now be worth billions, but have never received a dime from the Israelis in reparations or compensation. Then in winter of 2008-2009, the Israeli military destroyed one in every eight Palestinian homes, rendering even more people homeless.

Schumer accuses the Gazans of not 'recognizing’ Israel, which is sort of like accusing the pelicans in the Gulf of Mexico of not 'recognizing’ BP. If Schumer wants the recognition and good will of the Gazans, he should arrange for them to be paid for the homes and farms out of which they were chased by the Israelis, who made them homeless refugees in a kind of vast concentration camp in Gaza, and are now half-starving them.

Think Progress reveals that Schumer told an Orthodox audience:

' SCHUMER: The Palestinian people still don’t believe in the Jewish state, in a two-state solution. More do than before, but a majority still do not. Their fundamental view is, the Europeans treated the Jews badly and gave them our land — this is Palestinian thinking [...] They don’t believe in the Torah, in David [...] You have to force them to say Israel is here to stay. The boycott of Gaza to me has another purpose — obviously the first purpose is to prevent Hamas from getting weapons by which they will use to hurt Israel — but the second is actually to show the Palestinians that when there’s some moderation and cooperation, they can have an economic advancement. When there’s total war against Israel, which Hamas wages, they’re going to get nowhere. And to me, since the Palestinians in Gaza elected Hamas, while certainly there should be humanitarian aid and people not starving to death, to strangle them economically until they see that’s not the way to go, makes sense.

So anything short of 'starving to death’, i.e. mass extermination in the camps, is all right as long as it convinces the enemy?

How about something short of starving to death, such as 10% of children being stunted from malnutrition? Would that be worth it? Or a majority of Gazans being 'food insecure’ according to the United Nations? [pdf]. Both are the current situation, which is supported by Schumer.

How about Gaza children Looking for food in garbage?

Some 56% of Gazans are children, who hardly voted for Hamas but whom Schumer wishes to punish economically.

Meanwhile, Schumer doesn’t recognize a Palestinian state, but he nevertheless gets three solid meals a day.

Sen. Charles Schumer at crumpets and tea

As Think Progress explained, nothing Schumer said is true. A majority of Palestinians favors a two-state solution. Moreover, Palestinians are Christians and Muslims, who do in fact acknowledge the Torah (the Hebrew Bible, which the Qur’an praises as full of guidance and light) and David (whom the Qur’an calls "Da’ud.") Schumer is shamelessly ignorant about Palestinian culture, but it is true that they do not draw from David’s existence or from the Qur’an’s praise of the Torah or Bible the same conclusion as contemporary political Zionists or Jewish nationalists, that Jews have a right to expel local people from Palestine and usurp their property without compensation. But then virtually no Jews drew such a conclusion in the United States until after World War II, and most diaspora Jews rejected such an idea until that era.

As for the idea that all Gazans, including children, should be economically punished until they agree with Schumer’s Zionism, there is only one way that makes sense. Since the children of Gaza did not vote for Hamas, if they are being punished for Hamas’s crimes, then it must be because they are related to Hamas members.

Punishing people because they are related to enemies of the state is called in German Sippenhaft or Sippenhaftung. Look it up. I don’t usually like such analogies from the 1930s and 1940s in Europe to contemporary Zionist thinking because they inevitably offend even a sympathetic Jewish audience. But it should be noted that Sippenhaftung was implemented against gentile German family members of dissidents such as those involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler, and that Stalin also deployed the tactic of punishing relatives of perceived dissidents. And there is no other way to read Schumer’s prescription for putting Gazan children on a diet than as a contemporary form of Sippenhaftung.

And it is shameful, and he deserves the comparison for these inhumane sentiments.

Here is the video of Schumer saying what he said:

BP bailout proposal coming soon

For OpEdNews: Brent Budowsky - Writer

Get ready for the BP bailout debate. As the most hated company in America led by the most despised CEO in business continues its systematic deceptions about the magnitude of the catastrophe, its systematic secrecy and threats of reprisal against employees who speak the truth in public and its systematic blockade against reporters seeking the basic facts, get ready for the mother of all political debates.

When the full damage of the oil is calculated, and the full payment of restitution is required and the full consequences of lawsuits are understood and the monetary consequences of such enormous personal and economic misery are realized, BP will tell us that we face the choice of BP going bankrupt and being unable to pay its debts or receiving a government bailout so it can meet its obligations from the damage it has done.

We will be told that BP is too big to fail.

Prediction: Before the rooster crows another 60 times, BP will be seeking a government bailout. If you thought the Wall Street bailout debate was nasty, wait until you see the BP bailout debate.

There should be NO bailout of BP paid for by ANY taxpayer, period, end of discussion, over and out. If necessary there should be a fund paid for by all of the oil companies doing offshore drilling, as the price of their doing business off our shores and as the incentive to make sure this does not happen again.

The economic damage and the political fallout have only begun. If the pictures of oil spewing from pipes are unsavory, and the pictures of angry citizens and dead pelicans are unsavory, watch what happens when we begin weeks of television news of the D-Day invasion of poison oil landing on the beaches of the American Normandy.

It would serve Washington right if the rivers of poison meet the loop current and the Gulf Stream and end up in the river of the Potomac so official Washington can see, taste and smell what has only begun for Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Let us hope this does not happen, though it very well could.

Today, the president should demand, and BP should disclose, every video stream and internal memo that reveals the truth, whatever it is, about the size of the ocean of poison.

Today, the president should demand, and BP should disclose, the exact amount of chemical dispersants that are polluting our land, water and people.

Today, the president should demand, and BP should agree, that all restrictions against media be ended and all reprisals against media should be stopped, and if rights are being violated, those responsible should be prosecuted.

The sooner the truth comes out, the safer our people will be.

Today, the president should demand, and BP should disclose, the exact and complete chemical composition of the dispersants so Americans do not wake up on some future morning with news about deformed babies or cancerous disease.

Mark my words: The abuse of dispersants, the composition of which are being kept secret, in amounts that are probably infinitely larger than what is being disclosed, create the potential for a grave, extreme and mortal health catastrophe whose pain and cost are not even remotely understood today.

What does it tell us that these secrets are being kept from the people even today? It tells us that the damage is far more than realized, and that the cost is far greater than understood, and that the BP bailout is far more likely than realized.

With BP delaying so much payment to so many people already, heaven help the victims when the payments due mount from the millions that are currently unpaid today, to the billions of dollars that will be due tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

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Oath Keeper Sheriff Candidates Michael "Tex" Teixeira & Mark Adams on Martial Law

Oath Keeper Sheriff Candidates Michael "Tex" Teixeira & Mark Adams on Martial Law
SoCal Martial Law Alerts
June 2-3, 2010

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY, California -- SoCal Martial Law Alerts interviewed the only two Oath Keepers in a field of six Sheriff candidates. Candidates Michael "Tex" Teixeira and Mark Adams were each asked the same set of questions concerning martial law, freedom of speech and Second Amendment issues. Candidate Teixeira admitted that they were "tough" questions. Candidate Adams said he wished that such questions had been asked during the various sheriff's candidate forums which took place in the weeks leading up to the June 8, 2010 primary election.

UPDATE: Neither Oath Keeper candidate garnered enough votes to advance to the general election in November.

One of the candidates who did advance to the general election, Joe Cortez, has extensive FBI and FEMA training. He is not an Oath Keeper and declined to be interviewed.


Michael "Tex" Teixeira:


Mark Adams:

Farid Khavari, FL Gubernatorial candidate, on NBC

Click this link ..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV4f6YIt0eQ